


It's Okay to be a Little Nerdy

by thecarlonethatalsowrites



Series: Danvers Sisters Week [3]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Gen, fluff at a science convention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-08-30
Packaged: 2018-12-21 21:13:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11952741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecarlonethatalsowrites/pseuds/thecarlonethatalsowrites
Summary: Day three of Danvers Sisters Week, Nerd Sisters! Alex and Kara go to a science fair to speak to a panel of young girls.





	It's Okay to be a Little Nerdy

Alex absolutely loathes to admit it, but she’s a total nerd. She had more titles ending with -ist than Kara can even count, can probably list every single Star Trek episode  _ in order _ , and delights in new scientific challenges- even though she can never say so because often they are a direct result of extraterrestrial or Cadmus activity. 

Kara is pretty sure all this and more qualify her as a nerd, and that means she’s without a doubt the best person to go to with this. Because, yes, Kara technically qualifies as a nerd as well, what with the way she can calculate crazy complex equations on the regular in her head and being a Trekkie along with Alex, but she probably doesn't qualify for  _ this _ .

“Hey, Alex,” she says sweetly, flouncing up to her sister when she spies her on the main floor of the DEO. “You look amazing today.” Alex looks down at her black uniform, the same one she wears every day.

“Not that I don’t appreciate the compliment, but what do you need?” She asks.  _ Rats _ Kara curses silently to herself, but her attempt at flattery was a long shot anyway. Alex knows her too well to be fooled by any sneakiness she may attempt (and, yes, she  _ can _ be sneaky...sometimes.)

“Okay, so I kind of need something that requires you give up your Saturday afternoon next week,” she says. “Will you help me?”

“Depends. What is it?” Ok, Alex is suspicious. Maybe that wasn’t the best opener.

“Well, Lena is hosting a science fair at L-Corp for teenage girls who have interest in pursuing scientific careers or hobbies, and she kind of asked me to ask Supergirl to make an appearance. You know, to promote science and everything. And I totally want to, but I’m not exactly up to date on Earth’s sciences, so I thought you could come along and talk about some stuff.”

It’s a good plan. Over the past few months, Lena has worked with the DEO on multiple occasions and witnessed Alex’s work up close. She agreed immediately when Supergirl asked if she could bring in an expert, especially when she told her it would be Alex. The hard part was actually convincing Alex to do it.

Which might be harder than Kara thought it would be if Alex’s incredulous look is anything to go by.

“You want me to go talk to a bunch of teenagers who don’t have a clue that the organization we work for even exists about...stuff?” She talks slowly as if giving Kara the opportunity to realize how ridiculous this all was.

“Teenage girls,” Kara clarifies, determined not to be shut down on this. “Who could really be helped by talking to a  _ woman _ with a crazy amount of scientific credentials.” Alex narrows her eyes, but Kara can see that she’s got her convinced.

“Fine.” She says, confirming her agreement which Kara saw seconds before she spoke. “Tell Lena I’ll be there.”

“Yes!” Kara does a small fist pump before rushing over to the balcony. “Thank you for not making me do this alone! I’ll text you the details when I get them!” She launches herself out of the DEO, excited to tell Lena the news.

* * *

 

Alex expected a lot of things about this fair, but what she did not expect was to be standing awkwardly next to Lena Luthor at the head of a gigantic conference room in the LCorp building while Lena introduces her to almost a hundred girls ages twelve to nineteen. With Kara nowhere in sight.At least she’s only doing an hour long panel, rather than the all day fair Kara had promised.

“It’s my pleasure to introduce Dr. Alexandra Danvers, an accomplished bio-engineer, neuroscientist, and xenobiologist. Much of her recent work has been to increase our understanding of alien life, and she agreed to come in today to answer some of your questions. So without further ado, Dr. Danvers, everyone.” Lena looks to her and Alex takes a deep breath. The alien mention in Lena’s speech was fought tooth and nail against J’onn, who only approved because it didn’t mention exactly what Alex did. However, that wasn’t the part that made Alex uncomfortable.

“At the risk of sounding like a cliche, Dr. Danvers is my mother. Just call me Alex,” she says quietly. Lena shoots her a look because most of Alex’s words have been directed at Lena rather than the girls before them. Alex forces herself to look out over the crowd. “Or, Dr. Alex, if you wish.” 

Why is this so damn hard? Alex addressed a hundred people on every given day, many of them high ranking government officials. Hell, she’s even spoken directly to the President. More than once. So why is speaking to 80 teenage girls so much more difficult?”

“As Ms. Luthor said, I mainly study biological components of alien life. I earned my Ph.D. at 24, not much older than some of you.” This is more information about herself than she’s told anyone in years, but the girls before her are looking at her so expectantly she has to give them something. “So, um, it’s reasonable to believe that some of you may complete similar programs in the next few years.” That’s what she’s here for, isn’t she? To encourage these girls to pursue their interest in science. 

Thankfully, Lena interrupts before she has to say anything else. “Speaking of aliens, there’s one more person who’s supposed to be here for this panel.” Lena walks over to the window and places a hand on the latch. “Supposedly any minute…” It’s incredibly cheesy, but Lena somehow makes the words sound more than that. And, well, when Kara floats into view awe overwhelms any perception of cheapness.

Lena opens the window and Kara flies in with a wave and such incredible heart eyes towards Lena that Alex sends up a silent prayer that she’ll keep it in her pants. She lands next to Alex in her smiling hero pose and there are literal gasps from the crowd.

“Hey, ladies, I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation here. Now, I’m no scientist myself, but I definitely appreciate the discipline.” As enthralled as the girls look at the appearance of Supergirl, her words bring them right back to cheesy and make them almost disinterested. “Also, I’m here to help Dr. Alex blow some stuff up.” The girls cheer loudly at that, and Alex is glad Lena reserved one of the downstairs labs for the last fifteen minutes of the panel.

“On a more serious note, there are more important aspects of science than explosions, believe it or not. I was shocked to find out.” She elicits a short laugh from the crowd. “On my planet, I was supposed to be a scientist. But instead, Krypton died and I ended up on Earth, and that’s because the very few people who were scientists didn’t share what they knew about our world dying. 

“I’m here in this room to prevent another disaster like that from happening because it’s you all who are going to save the Earth. Science is our most important tool to combat dangers to this world, both from outer space and right here on the surface of the planet. It’s one that Dr. Alex and I use every day.” Kara looks to Alex to let her know it’s her turn, but Alex is dumbstruck.

Luckily, so is the audience. Kara probably overshared about Alex’s part in her adventures, but she sure could give a speech. Alex was not expecting her to share so much of her story, and apparently neither were her listeners. She can see several girls who look visibly affected by Kara’s words. Alex is nowhere near as good with words, but she feels obligated to follow up in some way.

“The three of us, yes, Ms. Luthor too, are here to talk to you about different areas of science and the kinds of fields you can go into should you pursue a career, and to answer any questions you may have to the best of our ability. And who knows? Maybe you’ll ask some questions we can’t answer, but that will be answered in the future by one of you.” And with that, the questions started flowing.

Most are directed at Kars, but Alex is pleased that several girls ask her about her accelerated Ph.D. program and studies in biology. Lena answers a few inquiries about Earth’s current level of technology compared to other known planets, and somehow everyone avoids talking about threats from other worlds, too caught up in their passion for science.

Their time is almost up when Alex notices a girl in the back frantically waving her hand. She stands out from the crowd, many of whom are sporting various college or college preparatory wear to represent their varied schools, in her highly fashionable outfit and professional looking makeup. In fact, Alex doesn’t think she’s been called on once, even though this can’t be the first time she’s raised her hand.

“How about you in the back?” She says when Kara finishes answering a question and almost everyone’s hands fly up, including the girl Alex noticed and called on. The room quiets as the girl stands.

“Hello, my name is Desha Ramone, I’m a high school senior and I’ve been studying material sciences, particularly how they can be applied to fashion and clothing.” There are a few groans and Alex is impressed that Desha is not cowed. “My question is about Supergirl’s suit; mainly, how does it stay intact under major stress, yet still be comfortable enough to wear for extended periods of time?”

Kara looks like she’s been presented with a box of potstickers. She’s incredibly proud of Winn and his work and launches into a detailed explanation about interwoven fibers and fire resistant fabric. Desha soaks in her words, writing everything down in a little notebook with a fuzzy pink pen. It’s when Kara’s explanation starts to wind down that Alex speaks up.

“You said mainly,” she says and Desha knows exactly what she’s talking about.

“That’s right.” She nods. “I don’t mean to be rude, but have you ever considered something more practical?” The room gasps and Desha rushes to explain herself. “I mean, I wear skirts all the time, and you can’t  _ do _ anything in them. And I’m totally for wearing whatever the hell you want, but even light armor would be an asset in your line of work, even if you are practically invincible.”

“You know, you have a point. I have friends in the media, do you know how many times they’ve warned me about upskirt pictures? I wear shorts under this for a reason, so yes I’ve considered practicality,” Kara says. There are sympathetic chuckles and groans from the crowd.

“Superman wears a chin to toe suit,” someone shouts, and there are mutters about equality and “the damn patriarchy,” which Alex can’t help but agree with. She continues to watch Desha, who seems proud to have facilitated the discussion, and Alex can’t help to think she’s not through yet.

“I have a question,” she says over the noise. The room quiets down and she continues. “Desha, what would you do differently?”

“Me?” She asks shocked. Alex is glad she’s confident enough despite her initial reaction to continue. “Well, probably something that offers more mobility and protection. Like, the same kind of durable fabric, but maybe with plating around the heart or…” she trails off, unsure of what else, but someone picks up the slack.

“Femoral artery!”

“Spine support!”

“Protect the kidneys!”

Suggestion after suggestion is shouted out, and they’re all so good that Lena rolls in a whiteboard. She offers the marker up between Kara and Alex. Kara is the better artist, so she accepts it and draws out three human figures from the front, back, and side. Lena takes point in organizing suggestions and mediating disputes, and Alex takes it upon herself to add what she knows of Kryptonian physiology to hash out where Kara needs the most protection (not that there are many places, but this is her sister.)

They’re having so much fun designing suits and debating the merits of each that they forget all about the set aside lab time and promised explosions. By the time the discussion has died down, Kara has drawn almost a dozen ideas for a new suit that range from extremely practical to completely unreasonable, yet totally badass, and they’ve run twenty minutes over their allotted panel time.

When the ideas stop flowing Lena deftly takes control of the room again, leaving it open for closing remarks. Alex is blunt, Kara is inspiring, and then all the girls are filing out of the room behind Lena, shouting their thank yous behind them. Kara and Alex are left alone with the sketches and each other, and Alex thinks it all ended too quickly for her taste.

“So what do you think? Not that bad, huh?” Kara says when they’re finally alone. Alex runs a critical eye over the whiteboard drawings. Kara has done a remarkable job on them.

“I want to get Winn on this. I bet he could make a lot of improvements to your suit,” she says, turning away from Kara and pulling out her phone to call him.

“But you liked the panel, right? Right, Alex?” With her back to Kara, Alex lets herself smile. Yeah, she liked the panel. The nerdy panel full of nerdy people.

Huh.

Guess that makes her a nerd too.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, hope you liked! Please tell me if you did, or come talk to me at thecarlonethatalsowrites.tumblr.com


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